Help with graphical link to content area

I want to set up a home page for a course where students click on an image that then takes them to a content area, rather than using the menu links on the left.

I can link graphics to individual documents within the content collection or to external websites, but I want to be able to link to a content area. that then contains multiple items/folders, etc.

For example, a student could click on an image to take them, say, to the "Learning Resources" area of their course..which is good ...but I don't want there to be an additional "Learning Resources" menu item on the left (in addition to the image). Does that make sense?

If I hide the menu item, the content within it becomes unavailable to students.

In a nutshell, can you have a content area without a link to it from the course menu?

Any help will be very much appreciated. I don't think there's a way but I want to be sure.

We have done this for a training course in which we wanted icons to link to the various SIS assessments for teachers (getting started, attendance, gradebook, etc.). What we did was created the assessments as scormed simulations and posted them in a content area. We didn't give the content area a name, but made it a line that matched the color scheme of the course, similar to a divider. If an end-user accidentally clicks on the line we have a message at the top redirecting them to the "home" page. See image of the menu that is below.

I am interested in doing something similar, where instead of heading content folders, module 1, module 2, etc, we could have a bunch of cool images where students click to enter module 1. The issue is, on course copy these hyperlinks to course content break and have to be cleaned up.

Ian, have you tried building a template with this information and "pushing" the content into a new course as opposed to "copying". If you put the resources in the Institution Content Collection, and add any graded activities to the "master/template" course it will even keep them linked in new iterations used with the template feature. This feature can even be used after a course is created as opposed to when they are created through integration with your SIS.